1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a digital electronic still camera. In particular, to a digital electronic still camera which has a memory cartridge detachably loaded therein. After an object field is shot image data representing the object field is stored in the memory cartridge.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A digital electronic still camera is an imaging apparatus which shoots an object field by using a solid-state imaging device such as a charge-coupled device, device. The CCD stores in memory an image signal representing the object field in the form of digital data. The memory employed in this apparatus is implemented in many cases as a memory card including a random-access memory, for example a semiconductor memory. In this situation to effectively use a storage area of memory, the data is usually compressed through data compression by use of an orthogonal conversion, encoding and a quantization of data.
Heretofore, in a digital electronic still camera to record and to reproduce image signals, for example, as shown in FIG. 2 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 44587/1989 in the name of the same assignee as that of the present application, a memory cartridge having a semiconductor memory is used as an image data recording medium. The publication noted above includes a method whereby the image data, information items such as a memory type, a memory capacity and a battery expiration date are stored.
The electronic camera may be structured so that the body of the camera has a detachably loaded memory cartridge carrying the information items. In such a system, according to a conventional method, in order to avoid an incorrect operation which may, for example, destroy recorded image data, the operator must take precautions. Prior to the installation of the cartridge, the operator must perform tedious operations to confirm various conditions such as the date, an image quality mode associated with a data compression method of the image data and a free storage area of the memory.